Burning Out & Lacking Motivation? (1 Viewer)

[Phaze]

It's very common for a lot of students to start strong and become very passionate and serious about their studies when they get into their senior years. It's also just as common for the students that do this to burn out and run out of motivation, what is the best way of pacing yourself so you don't burn out but can also stay on top of your work without losing motivation AND if you have lost motivation and find yourself scraping through, how can you find yourself motivation again.

 

[obliviousninja]

burnout is a lame excuse for the weak. it's non existent. all in the mind.

 

[Phaze]

Then what about all the people that do burn out ? You reckon its just a them giving up?

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[strawberrye]

Below is an extract from a senior study guide I have complied that hopefully provides some answers to this problem. The most important thing to remember in terms of avoidance of burn out is to establish intrinsic goals, rather than extrinsic goals such as meeting parent's expectations or beating other people. It is not as simple as giving up, there are a lot of individual circumstances and factors that does need to be taken into account, most of these is a result of neglect to treat these problems over a prolonged period of time that can possibly contribute to individuals truly 'burning out'.

My top tips on how NOT to burn out in Year 11 and Year 12:

1)Establish goal(s) that are either based on individual subjects, week by week, term by term, ATAR, university goals, both short term and long term that you want to achieve during your senior years. Make sure those goals are goals you really want-not those that your parents or friends want you to have-establish personal goals will enable you to have meaningful reasons to keep studying and working hard for the entire year

2)If following a study timetable is not working for you, then try a to do list day by day listing all the things you must do and other optional things you need to get done-school work and other commitments-avoid procrastination, for example,by using surfing the internet as a reward another a successful study session, keep the reward to 5-10 minutes for every 45-60 minutes of high concentration study.

3)Enforce some self-discipline, perhaps group study might work for you-perhaps you need the occasional encouragement from your friends-but don't get distracted, whenever you want to give up, rehydrate your brain with some stretching and cold water, and visualise yourself at the end of the HSC year, achieving all the goals you want, and having no regrets. Smack your desired ATAR on the wall-and whenever you feel quickly tired, have a 5 minute break and look at that number-and think to yourself-if you want that ATAR, you will just have to keep working hard and keep studying

When people burn out-it is usually because either they have irregular sleeping routines or they lack self-discipline that comes from lack of real motivations. Make sure you sleep and rest well so you are alert in your study, eat healthy food, exercise and find some genuine, intrinsic source of motivation and that way, with persistence, consistent optimistic attitude and determination, you will maximise your potential and improve your academic results in the senior years.

For the full guide containing lots more study tips, techniques and tricks, click on: http://community.boredofstudies.org...how-excel-senior-year-studies-yr-11-12-a.html

Hope this helps

 

[flashtrick]

I'm kinda burnt out these holidays. And funnily enough, I finished my HSC last year, haha.

For me personally, I know that I have cycles of high and low motivational stages. So I ride the highs, doing as much as I can, then ride the lows, doing nothing at all. Might not work for you. Motivation and drive is, after all, a very individual thing.

The most universally applicable advice I can give you is to balance your lifestyle. If all you're really doing is studying, then no shit you're gonna get tired and burnt out. Put other things into your schedule: exercise, friends, read books. It'll give you a chance to relax and escape from monotonous study.

Or you can try to love studying. If you love it, you'd want to do it every day no matter what. Of course, you can't really force yourself to love study. There are some things in life you'll enjoy, and some things you won't.

 

[rumbleroar]

I think you need to break things up:

I think you need to go in with the mentality of taking things "one day at a time". It's very hard to maintain perspective if all you think about is "dat 99.95" or "state rank" and do "poorly", you're more susceptible to lose motivation quickly because you've just been dealt with a blow. You can lose sight of the "littler" things ahead of you if you're always pressuring yourself to achieve that far-fetched goal.

However, this might be a bit contradictory to what I just said, but you need to establish achievable goals that you can obtain, and break those goals into smaller components that will guide you towards the big goal. (hence the taking things one day at a time, where you work towards your smaller goals in order to achieve a big one, as opposed to blindly setting out to achieve a big goal with no real direction)

Also I did burn out towards the end of term 1 (lol it was so bad) and lost motivation for a while, but eventually, I hated just procrastinating and being so hard on myself that I just found it in me (cue inspirational song) to pick myself up again and slowly put myself into the habit of working. You just need to realise your mistakes and why you burnt out, address those (harder than it sounds, from experience) and approach things with a more holistic and positive mindset.

 

[raggiedoll]

I think you need to break things up:

I think you need to go in with the mentality of taking things "one day at a time". It's very hard to maintain perspective if all you think about is "dat 99.95" or "state rank" and do "poorly", you're more susceptible to lose motivation quickly because you've just been dealt with a blow. You can lose sight of the "littler" things ahead of you if you're always pressuring yourself to achieve that far-fetched goal.

However, this might be a bit contradictory to what I just said, but you need to establish achievable goals that you can obtain, and break those goals into smaller components that will guide you towards the big goal. (hence the taking things one day at a time, where you work towards your smaller goals in order to achieve a big one, as opposed to blindly setting out to achieve a big goal with no real direction)

Also I did burn out towards the end of term 1 (lol it was so bad) and lost motivation for a while, but eventually, I hated just procrastinating and being so hard on myself that I just found it in me (cue inspirational song) to pick myself up again and slowly put myself into the habit of working. You just need to realise your mistakes and why you burnt out, address those (harder than it sounds, from experience) and approach things with a more holistic and positive mindset.

Agreed. I find myself so much more relaxed when I just say to myself "Just focus on this one task for now and get it done as best as you can." Rather than thinking and dreading about the end-of-year results. I've especially learnt the value of that after receiving a pretty disappointing mark back for one of my subjects.

 

[enoilgam]

Some good points made by rumbleroar and strawberrye.

It's important to note that what is being described in this thread isnt "burnout", it's just a loss of motivation - burnout is something completely different. In terms of staying motivated, Rumbleroar has made a key point by saying that you need to maintain perspective. Long term goals like an ATAR/course arent enough to keep you motivated in the day to day. You have to break those goals down further into things which can be achieved on a daily basis. A large part of staying motivated has to do with confidence, having one overarching goal without short term goals overwhelms people because they dont know where to begin. But by having smaller goals, you have goals which can be achieved on a daily basis, which is going to improve your confidence and hence your motivation.

 

[anomalousdecay]

I'm kinda burnt out these holidays. And funnily enough, I finished my HSC last year, haha.

For me personally, I know that I have cycles of high and low motivational stages. So I ride the highs, doing as much as I can, then ride the lows, doing nothing at all. Might not work for you. Motivation and drive is, after all, a very individual thing.

The most universally applicable advice I can give you is to balance your lifestyle. If all you're really doing is studying, then no shit you're gonna get tired and burnt out. Put other things into your schedule: exercise, friends, read books. It'll give you a chance to relax and escape from monotonous study.

Or you can try to love studying. If you love it, you'd want to do it every day no matter what. Of course, you can't really force yourself to love study. There are some things in life you'll enjoy, and some things you won't.

Quoting from another thread an example of what I used to do along the lines of flashtrick's information:

Find an activity to calm you down.

Personally I used sports as a form of relaxation and even meditation away from studies.

I played soccer throughout HSC and for a long time now with a club which would give me the opportunity to experience something new every week.

I do bike riding as a stress reliever sometimes and I end up taking in some amazing and calming sights and views around lake and bush areas. Sometimes I just use it as a form of gaining extra energy to feel refreshed and ready for anything that comes at me.

 

[Hombad]

burnout is a lame excuse for the weak. it's non existent. all in the mind.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_depletion